Month: September 2014

“We’re excited to announce that you can now upload files up to 10 GB from desktop, mobile, and the web! Our goal with OneDrive is to provide a single place for all your files, and we don’t want you to be limited by file size.Thanks, The OneDrive Team”

10 Gigabytes of Storage – yikes, I don’t know if I have that much. ;>

If you do not know what it is, “OneDrive” used to be “SkyDrive”, and it is a Microsoft Cloud based storage area. You can upload pictures, videos, files to OneDrive either as your main working space (as opposed to saving to the Desktop, for example) or it can be a backup area. Either way, this is free disk space essentially …

Although I am slowly but steadily using this Azure-based WordPress site … My blog is located here ! It is Google’s BlogSpot service. Even though I am a Microsoft guy, I do try to keep my technical interests spread around a LITTLE bit.

Or more to the point >>> http://exploringwindowsos.blogspot.com/

That is really my ‘site’ these days, but I also put the latest feed entries to the right …

This is a Windows Azure hosted site. I am mainly exploring this free hosting service from Microsoft to verify the efficacy of its business use. Azure is one of the largest Cloud providers in the world. They have datacenters world-wide with massive DNS caching and data redundancy. I use and support it at work for virtualization and web site hosting.

Greetings. This is my latest personal web site experiment. I am using the most recent WordPress version to test, explore and to complement a few work projects, and really, to have some fun on the weekends.

In another world [Windows Azure], I am using WordPress. I really love WP – it is not only the top blog site software these days, it is the top CMS as well. Put the acronyms aside – WP powers millions of sites worldwide and is basically at the tops of all the charts.

The new + always improved WordPress (4.0) is out!
I always like the ‘under the hood stuff’, as opposed to ‘bells and whistles’ stuff ;>

It’s becoming a love affair. Once I started actually texting, setting up reminders via Cortana and making calls with her as well, I knew all bets were off. Siri who?!

But seriously, Cortana’s voice sounds surprisingly nice & clear, and the search is extremely fast – you do not even have to click a button after a few words are spoken. As soon as there’s a pause, she is off on Bing finding information or working the Apps per the given commands. Of course, you need to access Cortana in the first place. I was clumsily going through Internet Explorer on my Windows Nokia Lumia 1020. From there you can hit the tiny microphone to begin voice search functions. Basic search and some other functions were all doable with the previous version that was built into Bing. But now there’s a full App for Cortana. However, I either missed the prompt to add to my Start screen upon the Windows 8.1 update (very possible) or it was not offered. The easy fix is to add it: swipe left to open the alphabetized Apps list, go to “C”. Hold Cortana down for 2 seconds, then select “pin the start”. For me, Cortana is downright critical as my Lumia is not only fun, it’s a work phone!

You CAN just hit the search icon itself on the phone (the icon to the right of the Windows Start button), but I do like to have the App on the scree – it has news headlines flashing through periodically, which is useful.

So, after above is done, I held the start screen Cortana for 2 seconds, then dragged the App upward. For me, it belongs on top. Others may want it down further, but consider: Cortana can send texts, make calls, set reminders, set alarms, search for movie theaters or restaurants, and … tell you a joke. And more.

Open Cortana. Press the microphone to start. Before having fun, you may need to answer a few questions (your name, your interests, depending whether it’s been used or not), then that is all – speak clearly and concisely. Happy searching & functioning! Of course, you still type, the old fashioned way. This may be needed, if you’re at a loud concert for example.

Siri may be able to do some or all of this (not sure), especially with the new Apple releases coming out soon, but the bar has been set VERY high.

I am not sure about other Exchange Server Email infrastructure administrators, but I find it challenging to come up with reasonable mailbox quotas AND implementing them in a time efficient and coherent manor. The goal is to set maximum mailbox size quotas that work for all involved: I.T. Departments and various employees and respective departments. […]

I normally get what is needed from my Windows phone Outlook, but some searching and sorting type of improvements would not be turned down.Microsoft Acquires Email Startup Acompli to Give Outlook a Mobile Advantage"Microsoft has acquired the mobile email startup Acompli, the tech giant announced today on its website.Terms of the deal were not disclosed, […]

This is not the best news, as I am embarking on some Azure based projects at work. Come on now, all you expert Microsoft Engineers - make it happen (work / fix)! Btw - What about all that redundancy? ;>"Xbox Live Goes Down Again: Second Major Outage This Month [Updated]"http://www.ibtimes.com/xbox-live-goes-down-again-second-major-outage-month-updated-1725918

Hyper-V Manager within Windows Server 2012 (Datacenter Edition) can sometimes produce an odd error when attempting to turn on a typical virtual machine or VM after it has been shut down: This error might make sense if the user is not logged in as an Administrator, but really what organization gives Windows 2012 Datacenter Hyper-V access […]